A seperate Peace

A detailed Summary of A seperate Peace

Literary Analysis for 'A Separate Peace' By John Knowles

 Self Reflection- Last week I was driving around Redlands with a friend. We were headed to a park but got off on the wrong off ramp. We decided to find the park by using the back streets. We ended up going by my old school. I had gone to that school in 1st grade and 1/2 of 3rd grade. It was my favorite school I had ever gone to. When we approached the school I began to be rushed with memories of the time I had spent in the school. The bus rides, the classrooms, the teachers,, my best friend Sheena and the chasing games I had with Jessie. I loved those times, and I cherished them longingly as we went by, it was such a carefree time. Oh and by the way... we made it to the park 

 Literary Terms- There was three literary terms I had noticed in this book as I read through. They were Allusion, Antithesis and Antanagoge. The meanings of these three terms are;

 Allusion- A casual and brief reference to a famous historical (could be referring to the war, even though it wasn't historical exactly, yet) or literally figure or event (WWII).

 Antithesis- establish a clear contrasting relationship between 2 ideas and/or people (Finny and

Gene and Finny never really fought with each other, only in their own minds, except when Finny had just found out that Gene was the one who caused Finny to fall out of the tree, Finny was very angered at Gene and showed it at that point.

OK now second of all, Antangoge. When Finny yells at Gene or when he is upset at Gene for making him fall off the tree he always reduces the impact of his bad deed by always saying he was still his best friend and that he was always a good friend (except when he was pushing him out of the tree of course).

 Antanagoge- placing a good point or benefit next to a fault criticism or problem in order to reduce the impact or significance of the negative point.

 Conflict- Gene has conflicts with himself internally. He was fighting with himself with the ideas of Finny thinking he was better than Gene and thinking that Finny was trying to compete with him and trying to make him get worse get grades and the idea that Finny was just being his friend and that's all he was about.

 Point Of View- The narrative method of this story was first person main character. The author probably chose Gene to be the narrator because he was the one who had the guilt trip and had everything going on in his mind, and he could be the one who flashes back because Finny couldn't, because he was not around any longer...

 Symbol- 1) The tree obviously is the biggest symbol in the story. It is where Finny and Gene become friends, where they take life threatening risks together, where Finny controls Gene, and the where the end of Finny begins. It is a symbol of the base of their friendship and what it held. It is what makes their friendship start and end.

2) The tree limb, even though this is part of the tree, is also something that is symbolic to the story, at least in my opinion. The limb is a symbolism because of the instability of Genes feelings toward finny. It represents he thin line between hatred, jealously, love and friendship.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1483
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English